{"title":"LOA 的成果","authors":"John N Duvall","doi":"10.1093/alh/ajae076","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The marketing claims of the Library of America (LOA) reveal that this institution functions within the tradition of such middlebrow publishing ventures as The Harvard Classics and the Modern Library. All such ventures assure consumers that cultural cache can be theirs through brand loyalty. LOA’s brand identity, however, is fraught with contradictions. While claiming to continue the legacy of highbrow literary critic Edmund Wilson, LOA increasingly publishes volumes devoted to pulp genres that would have been anathema to Wilson. While English departments have been questioning notions of the canon throughout LOA’s history, the publisher, founded in 1980, insists that its books define the canon of US literature. The professoriate, however, has largely ignored LOA’s claims regarding great literature because the publisher also claims to uphold the standards of great scholarship. These brand contradictions serve as a context for assessing a recent addition to LOA’s core collection, William Faulkner: Stories, edited by Theresa M. Towner. I contrast Towner’s editorial methods with those of Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, who edited LOA’s five volumes of Faulkner’s novels between 1985 and 2003, in order to address what we mean when we say a text is authoritative and corrected.","PeriodicalId":45821,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The Fruits of the LOA\",\"authors\":\"John N Duvall\",\"doi\":\"10.1093/alh/ajae076\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"The marketing claims of the Library of America (LOA) reveal that this institution functions within the tradition of such middlebrow publishing ventures as The Harvard Classics and the Modern Library. All such ventures assure consumers that cultural cache can be theirs through brand loyalty. LOA’s brand identity, however, is fraught with contradictions. While claiming to continue the legacy of highbrow literary critic Edmund Wilson, LOA increasingly publishes volumes devoted to pulp genres that would have been anathema to Wilson. While English departments have been questioning notions of the canon throughout LOA’s history, the publisher, founded in 1980, insists that its books define the canon of US literature. The professoriate, however, has largely ignored LOA’s claims regarding great literature because the publisher also claims to uphold the standards of great scholarship. These brand contradictions serve as a context for assessing a recent addition to LOA’s core collection, William Faulkner: Stories, edited by Theresa M. Towner. I contrast Towner’s editorial methods with those of Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, who edited LOA’s five volumes of Faulkner’s novels between 1985 and 2003, in order to address what we mean when we say a text is authoritative and corrected.\",\"PeriodicalId\":45821,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY\",\"volume\":\"28 1\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.6000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-08-13\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajae076\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LITERATURE, AMERICAN\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajae076","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, AMERICAN","Score":null,"Total":0}
The marketing claims of the Library of America (LOA) reveal that this institution functions within the tradition of such middlebrow publishing ventures as The Harvard Classics and the Modern Library. All such ventures assure consumers that cultural cache can be theirs through brand loyalty. LOA’s brand identity, however, is fraught with contradictions. While claiming to continue the legacy of highbrow literary critic Edmund Wilson, LOA increasingly publishes volumes devoted to pulp genres that would have been anathema to Wilson. While English departments have been questioning notions of the canon throughout LOA’s history, the publisher, founded in 1980, insists that its books define the canon of US literature. The professoriate, however, has largely ignored LOA’s claims regarding great literature because the publisher also claims to uphold the standards of great scholarship. These brand contradictions serve as a context for assessing a recent addition to LOA’s core collection, William Faulkner: Stories, edited by Theresa M. Towner. I contrast Towner’s editorial methods with those of Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, who edited LOA’s five volumes of Faulkner’s novels between 1985 and 2003, in order to address what we mean when we say a text is authoritative and corrected.
期刊介绍:
Recent Americanist scholarship has generated some of the most forceful responses to questions about literary history and theory. Yet too many of the most provocative essays have been scattered among a wide variety of narrowly focused publications. Covering the study of US literature from its origins through the present, American Literary History provides a much-needed forum for the various, often competing voices of contemporary literary inquiry. Along with an annual special issue, the journal features essay-reviews, commentaries, and critical exchanges. It welcomes articles on historical and theoretical problems as well as writers and works. Inter-disciplinary studies from related fields are also invited.